Los Angeles Extends Smoking Ban to E-Cigs

Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty ImagesCast member Andrew Dice Clay smokes an e-cigarette as he arrives with Valerie Vasquez for the premiere of the film "Blue Jasmine," at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in Beverly Hills, California July 24, 2013.

"Vaping" is now verboten in restaurants, bars and farmers markets

Los Angeles has become the the third major U.S. city, after New York and Chicago, to ban e-cigarettes from public spaces.

Bloomberg reports that LA’s city council unanimously voted to extend existing smoking bans to the odorless vapors of e-cigarettes. The “vaping” ban will encompass bars, restaurants, parks and, of course, farmers markets.

City council members feared that e-cigarettes could lure non-smokers into a habit dangerously akin to smoking. “I will not support anything that might attract one new smoker,” said City Council President Herb Wesson. E-cigarette makers contend that the vast majority of their customers are smokers trying to quit, and that it’s a “gateway” out of an addictive habit rather than into one. Either way, that gate has now closed on Angelenos looking to light up in public.

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